March organizers predict record attendance, impact on Congress

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama probably is one of the most abortion-minded politicians Washington ever has seen, and under his watch pro-lifers have been hounded by the Department of Justice, Planned Parenthood tax funding has rocketed to $540 million and coming health care laws are going to force business leaders of faith to pay for abortifacients in violation of their religious rights.

But organizers of this week’s March for Life, a recognition of the 40 years that Roe v. Wade has been enforced as the law of the land, say optimism is surging for those who are arriving in Washington to participate in the memorial.

Jeanne Monahan, the president of the March for Life, is optimistic about the crowd size of this year’s event.

“We don’t have a crowd estimate, per se, but all signs point toward record-breaking crowds, including our hotel block selling out very early, and receiving many more media inquiries than in the past,” she told WND.

It will be no easy challenge to reach that goal of surpassing last year’s 500,000 plus attendance.

But Monahan declares that the goal of the March for Life is to “positively impact Congress by showing the vast support for pro-life laws in our country.”

“It is our desire,” she said, “to enable legislators to be courageous on the life issues by introducing and enacting legislation that protects the dignity of the human person.”

Monahan said the debate is as much about policy as it is culture and said, “We also hope to impact Washington, D.C., culture by the witness of the countless, joyful, enthusiastic young protesters who are keenly aware that abortion is the human rights abuse of today. ”

Monahan was appointed president in November 2012, coming out of a background of holding several positions at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services until the agency’s increasingly pro-abortion stance caused her to resign in 2009.

She said one of the key coming fights will be over Obamacare, the president’s signature takeover of health care decision-making across the nation.

“As the health care law continues to roll out, we have to continue to analyze new regulations and when necessary watch it very closely and do everything possible to help Americans understand that we have to continue to keep our eye on the health care law,” she said.

She adds that while abortion supporters celebrate Obama’s election success, she remains “definitely somber in considering the 55 million Americans who have died in the past four decades as a result of abortion.”

The situation right now, she said, is that, “the pro-life movement has every reason to be optimistic” and that America is “moving into a different, more hopeful era where we are winning one young person and one state at a time.”

In addition to encouraging people to attend the March for Life, Monahan also encourages people to be active on the state level to promote pro-life values.

“State legislators can introduce bills that help a woman to have a more fully informed consent, enable parental involvement, and limit state funding of abortion providers, among other possibilities,” she said of the battle on the ground.

Though jobs and economics dominated the political discussion of 2012, abortion nonetheless was still a high priority topic.

According to Gallup, last October women voters in key swing states, when asked about the most important issue for them in the 2012 presidential election, identified abortion. Jobs was the second pick, at about 19 percent.

While the big March for Life is on Friday, where former Sen. and WND columnist Rick Santorum is speaking, other events kicked off today to mark the 40th anniversary of the decision.

The Christian Defense Coalition made plans to place flowers on the sidewalk of the Supreme Court, and prayer services were scheduled by the National Pro-Life Religious Council as well as the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Pro-Life Activities Committee.